Moodle is as Moodle does
Posted on May 31, 2007
I’ve been fooling around with Moodle and decided it probably isn’t the best for me and what I want to do. It seems very versatile and has a bunch of modules teachers can us, but it also seems a bit crufty. I’m not that inclined to get into the code to work on it.
I think it maybe it’s trying to be too many things to too many people. I’m also reminded of the old idea that you write a speech or essay to the intelligence level of your audience. I think Moodle is trying to make things simple for educators who aren’t inclined to learn UNIX commands, system administration, or computer programming. I can understand the reasoning behind that, however, I’m often frustrated by things that are “dumbed down†in my opinion. This applies to a lot of programs, not just Moodle.
If I am presented with a set of choices, I am limited to those choices. If I want to accomplish something not on that list, I have to give up doing what I want or I have to do it myself. If I have to do it myself, why bother with another program in the first place. So, I’ll probably start on Lingo again.
I did learn some of the issues of programming for the mobile web. Not all mobile browsers will accept cookies. Also, not all of them will read CSS. I can see myself working a bit more with HTTP_USER_AGENT to work through some issues. It still doesn’t help me with Unicode and the Palm Pilot, but I can at least use the T|X to view the site and figure out how the site works on a mobile platform.
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I looked at the scholar360 site and while it might be affordable for someone else, it is way out of my price range. It starts at $2500. Plus, I didn’t see anything that mentioned how well it works with mobile devices. Granted, I didn’t look that deep into it, and I did see something about “custom modules,” but I don’t think it’s really for me or does what I want to accomplish.
I’m still pretty certain I will work on developing my own software, but if I didn’t, the next thing I would try would be Sakai. I work for IU (this is a pet project of mine, not affiliated with IU), which uses Sakai as their courseware. I’m fairly certain I could talk with people at IU who work with Sakai if I came across any problems. That said, I don’t think Sakai is very mobile friendly either.
I’m also a bit of a tinkerer, so I like the idea of coming up with my own code. Plus, I might be able to get credit for it.
Thanks for the comment though. :-)